I, the CEO, tour many companies, and find this one very interesting.
You might wonder what Apple actually makes. Well…they make a variety of things. Lap tops, tablets, iPod, MP3 players, etc. Most of them are/were very successful. Let’s start with laptops. Well…my favorite is the mac. It is a very thin computer that allows you to easily slip it into a briefcase or a back pack. It is used mostly for the graphics. Then, there is the iPad. It was made on January 27th 2010. It was a huge success, and it was very simple for the user to figure out how to use it. Apple is still manufacturing software and bringing out new products.
It all started about 60 years ago, when a little orphan was put up for adoption. This baby boy was born on February 24th, 1955. He was adopted as a very young baby, by Paul and Clara Jobs. They lived on the outskirts of San Francisco, CA. Both of his parents worked outside of the home. They named their new baby, Steve Jobs. Steve’s father worked for Spectra Physics, a company that made lasers.
As a kid, Steve was impressed by the way his father could fix things. When Steve was 5 months old, the family moved to South San Francisco. They lived by Palo Alto, Calif. The area later became Silicon Valley. Steve grew up strong-willed and smart. His mom, taught him to read, before he went to elementary school. Steve was bored, and knew much of what the kids were learning already. One day when he was in 7th grade, he came home from school and told his parents that he wanted to quit school. His parents took his complaint seriously and moved to nearby Los Altos, California so Steve could attend a better school.
Steve’s school teacher, John McCollum, recalled, “He was something of a loner, and always had a different way of looking at things.” Steve was 12 when he saw his first computer. The Hewlett Packard Company had invited his class at school to tour the nearby company. Steve fell in love with the desk top computer. He wanted one of his own. A couple of months later, Steve called William Hewlett. He told him who he was and asked for help in building a frequency counter for his school project. They talked for 20 minutes. Hewlett now only sent Steve the parts he needed, but also offered him a job at the company his freshman year in high school! His friend Bill Fernanden, took him to meet a person who would affect Steve’s life greatly. This person’s name was Steven Wozniak. He was 18 years old, four years older than Steve. They both became good friends. Almost every day, Steve would go to Woz’s house (as Wozniak was called) to talk about computers.
Steve graduated from Homestead high school in 1972. He then went to Portland Oregon for college. He soon dropped out after his first semester. He remained in the area for a year and studied “I Ching” (an ancient Chinese book of wisdom) meditation and vegetarianism. He then started working for Atari, a computer game company. Steve and his friend Woz, made a game called “Break out.” It was a success. He got a bonus and took a trip to India. When he got back, he decided to sell computers.
In March, 1975, more than 30 people, including Woz turned out for the first homebrew computer club, in Menlo Park, CA. Steve fell in love with computers all over again. He began making computer kits. He made up the name “personal computer.” Steve planned to sell them for $397.00. Steve talked his friend Woz into going into business with him. They made a computer. It was called the Apple I. It was a huge success. Steve’s company brought in over $750,000. That, to the company that had started in a garage!
The company then made the Apple II, and it was very popular, but they made the Apple III and it was a very bad product, and was very expensive. There were 14,000 Apple II’s, sent back to the company to be fixed. Steve was 20 years old by then, and had over one million dollars. He knew that Apple’s reputation would go away if he did not make another good selling product. Steve invented the “mouse”. I think every desk top computer I have seen, has a mouse. He made the Macintosh as well. Both were successes. The company kept growing. , but Steve wanted something more.
He bought Pixar for 10 million. In 1988, Pixar invented “Tin toy” A short computer animation cartoon that won the Academy award. Disney was so impressed, they funded Pixar to make another, but this time they wanted a movie so it could be seen in theaters. Steve worked with his co-workers. They made Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and a Bug’s Life. Toy Story itself made, around $38 million. Steve was worth 1 billion dollars at age 40. He returned to Apple, and introduced the IMac.
Steve met a woman at Stratford University while giving a speech. Her name was Laurene Powell. They fell in love, and were married in 1991. They had 3 children…Reed, Erin, and Eve and lived in a 5 million dollar house. One of Steve’s quotes was, “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me, but going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful…that matters to me.”
Steve kept making software, but died from cancer, on October 4, 2011. So next time you pick up an Apple product, remember who made it.